By Jack Kuenzie - bio | email
SUMTER, SC (WIS) - 63 people are out of their homes because of a fire in their apartment building, but it wasn't the flames or smoke that caused the most damage - it was water.
Sumter County firefighters were called to the Garden Circle Apartments on East Liberty St. around 1:00 p.m. Saturday for a stove fire in a seventh floor apartment.
Firefighters immediately evacuated the building, which houses mostly elderly and physically disabled people.
The fire department says the sprinkler system extinguished the flames, but the building suffered a lot of water damage.
The Red Cross opened a shelter for the displaced residents at the Birnie Hope Center on South Purdy St., in Sumter.
Joyce Koiner is finding ways to pass the time while waiting in a Sumter emergency shelter for her home to be declared safe. Koiner is one of 63 people evacuated Saturday from the Garden Circle Apartments on East Liberty Street, the result of a fire that broke out on the building's seventh floor.
"I went in the building, but when I looked up the steps and I saw how dark it was, and all I could smell was smoke, I just started panicking," said Koiner. "I started shaking."
Investigators say the fire started in the kitchen of one of 61 units. "The fireman bammed on my door, told me to get out now, right now," said Loretta White, who lives on the floor below.
"I just like grabbed something to put on," added White. "When I came out to the hallway, I saw this water was down on the floor. And they was leading us down the stairs. It was a lot of chaos. Because there was people in wheelchairs also trying to go down the stairs."
The Red Cross stepped in immediately, setting up the shelter in the gym of Sumter's Birnie Hope Center. About 15 people were still in the shelter Monday afternoon.
"We've never had 63 residents displaced as far as a fire is concerned, as long as I've been here," said Nancy Cataldo of the American Red Cross. "It's been one of our bigger events that we've had to deal with other than a hurricane."
Cataldo says other than the unit where the fire began, most of the damage to the rest of the building was caused by water. Work is underway to clean up inside and make sure the building's elevator is in good shape.
Many who live there are elderly or cope with physical disabilities. "It's been a real experience, you know," said White. "I got to know a lot of things about my neighbor that I never knew before."
"Thank god we got a place to stay and we're not out on the streets," said Koiner.
No one suffered any serious injuries in the fire or evacuation.
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A Garden Circle Apartment resident relaxing on his cot at the Red Cross Shelter. (Source: Red Cross)
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